Please keep in mind that only one person can edit this page at a time.
It is recommended that each of you choose a colour of font and use the same one throughout.
As you work on your social action project (committed to 12 hours of dedicated time to giving service to others) plus responding in a Wiki format with your group of three, you will answer the following question: In light of your understanding of who do you say that I am, what does it mean to be Christ to others through your project? You will share your thoughts and observations and actions of setting up to kinds of things you did to what you observed or saw to the final pieces of your project. At the end of your project (Dec. 2 or what you have completed thus far), your group will come up with a group response to Who do you say that I am based on your social action journey.
Let's start answering this question tonight.
What does it mean to you, "Who do you say that I am?"
Hello Jessica and Cheryl,
I teach KG so we have been learning how to look after the planet by recycling. They are excited about it and try to be very careful about which bin to use. They were also impressed about the amount of food that came in for the Thanksgiving food Drive. Being able to help other people in this way is such a big concept to them.
I have an idea for a project through World Vision of raising money for a school in another country. I have to get started
on it if I am to be finished by Christmas. Esther
Hi Esther
I really think that you must have an incredible gift for teaching JK. I tried it for a term last year and I was not happy. You have to be so patient, and organized. I am so impressed that you discuss the issues of Food shortages, and World Vision with them. If I remember my teaching in JK last year around Thanksgiving, I was just in a survival mode. Cheryle
Esther and Cheryle,
Now I hope I have this figured out and that I am posting to the right area.
Esther it sounds like you have your KG's engaged in the recycling program and I'm sure they'll be just as excited about helping out another family through World Vision. Last year each class in our school raised money toward purchasing gifts through World Vision. My class bought rabbits and some other items for a family. My students loved this project and I am going to incorporate it into my religion program again this year.
Anyways, I have signed my class up to run a virtue assembly/liturgy for the school on November 3rd. The virtue for November is JUSTICE. At first I was finding it difficult to come up with an idea for the assembly/liturgy and an idea on how to teach my students exactly what justice is. Furthermore, I found out that this will be our schools only liturgy for November so I figured my class is also responsible for touching on Remembrance Day. After utilizing our school’s library resources I have come across a short Liturgy that focuses on the virtue of justice and found a book to read to my students about this virtue. After reading the book and explaining that we are responsible for teaching the entire school about justice my student’s mind were racing with ideas. We ended up having several discussions on how we could teach this virtue in an engaging way. So far we have far too many ideas which will eventually lead to our class encouraging all of the other classes to write letters to our military troops around Remembrance Day. My students are so excited about this project and I am excited to update the two of you along the way. Good luck with your projects!
Jess
permalink
Posted Oct 19, 2008 11:24 am Hello Jessica,
It sounds like you have really been doing some amazing things with your class. They are really excited about Justice and how they can tell the school. It seems so appropriate to center their liturgy around Remembrance Day. What grade do you teach?
I was encouraged to hear about your project with World Vision. We are going to begin talking about it this week. I was thinking about having them make posters that we could place outside our door so the other grades could help and maybe we could make an announcement to the rest of the school.
I look forward to hearing more about your assembly/liturgy.
Esther Esther and Cheryle,
I guess I forgot to tell you that I teach grade 4. So far in preparing for our Liturgy my students have heard the story Somewhere Today... and have made there own Somewhere Today posters to hang in the gym for our litugy. For example: Somewhere today someone is helping sommeone who is sick. Or Somewhere today someone is taking care of the environment. we may end up taking pictures of these and using them in a slideshow. We had wanted to take real photographs of our students doing good deeds and put them in a slideshow, but we seem to be running out of time. I also forgot to mention that the other grade 4 class is involved in creating this liturgy with my grade four class. We have yet to get together and time is quickly running out. So, I will update you later.
Jess
Hello Esther and Cheryle, This is my third time posting and I think I've finally figured it out. In case you have not noticed my other posts are under the discussion heading. In any case, plans for the virtue liturgy are moving quite slowly as I have been sick the past few days and the other grade 4 teacher and I have had trouble finding the time to work together on this project. She did however, come up with the idea to make our Somewhere Today posters into plastercine posters. Then we will take photos of them and make a slideshow to end off our virtue assembly. I was not in class at the end of the day today when my students began working on making their pictures into plastercine art, but I'm sure they were enthused as they seem to really love art projects. After hearing Greg Rogers speak a few weeks ago I think that we will use the song Hands by Jewel to play along with our slideshow. Also, our plans for writing to the troops have kind of fallen through as the company that we got the postcards from last year stopped producing the postcards and so we only have enough for the grade 4's. Anyways I will definitely have my grade fours send postcards, but I'm not sure how we'll go about it for the rest of the school. I'd like to think we could ask other grades to write letters, but these days people seem to only want to be part of convenient projects and the postcards make such a project much more convenient. Hopefully our virtue assembly will get the message of justice across to the rest of the school and we will be able to let our troops know that we have not forgotten about them and the reasons they are where they are.
Jessica
Hi ladies,
I just figured out how to move my other two posts to this page so that you do not have to look under the discussion heading. I placed them in the sequence in which they were originally sent.
Jessica
Hello Again!
Friday was such a busy day with all the Halloween festivities and trying to get our liturgy organized for Monday. As we (the other grade 4 teacher and myself,) rushed around trying to prepare this liturgy for Monday we began to get very frustrated. We want our students to be part of the whole preparation, but with all the interruptions during the last few weeks (Dance-A-Thon, cross country meets etc.) it has been hard to get our two classes together to work on this project. Late Friday morning we asked if it was possible to switch the liturgy to a later date and lucky for us we were able to switch it to this Wednesday. Now I feel much better in preparing my students who will be saying the readings. We hadn't picked readers until Friday and were going to send them home to practice. Now I will have time over the next few days to go over the readings with them to ensure they are comfortable.
Also, the choir was able to practice on Friday and any classes who were interested joined the choir to practice the songs. Both grade four classes attended this practice and will join in the next practices on Monday and Wednesday. The students are excited that they helped to choose the songs that they thought fit best with the virtue of justice. Several students have been asked to write prayers of the faithful. We will work with them on Monday to do this. I can't wait to see how the finished project will play out.
Jess Hello Jess,
Your virtue liturgy is coming along really well. You have been able to involve several other classes and the choir members. It's aways so exciting when things start to come together. Would it be possible for you to send me a picture of the plasticine art?
I have involved the other KG teachers with the World vision project and I have invited the rest of the school to join in the penny drive. We decided to get the chickens and rooster for as many families as possible.
We will be collecting money until the 26th then it will be sent in.
I started to read stories about children in other countries so their awareness of the needs of others will be heightened.
It is amazing to hear them talk about what they already know about other countries. They are very knowledgeable for 5years old!!
Esther
Hi Esther,I am amazed by what you are doing. How cool to think your students are going to be buying chickens and roosters for people. It seems so simple here, but we forget how needy other countries are. Cheryle Esther and Cheryle,
Its great to hear that your whole school is involved in the World Vision project. Our whole school was involved last year with the World Vision project and it was quite successful.
I will send some pictures of the plastercine art when I get a chance. We made a slideshow out of them so I will attempt to send it. I am really happy with how it all turned out. I cancelld our gym class this morning in order to get a practice in with the other grade four class for our Liturgy. You should have heard the moans and groans from a few of the boys when they heard we would miss gym. What surprised me is when one of the girls spoke up and said something to the effect that sometimes we need to make sacrifices like Jesus did and that it wasn't going to kill them to miss a gym class.
So our practice went well, the readers did very well and those who I least expected did the best. they were really excited. We even had the few students from our class who are in choir lead us in practicing they songs. Even without the music and music teacher they sounded beautiful. Well, 20 minute countdown before the Liturgy begins. I had better get going. I will let you know how it went a little later.
Oh, since we didn't really work in to much regarding Remembrance Day into our Liturgy I sent out some ideas to my colleagues about writing e-letters to the troops. Hopefully some of the classes will take advantage of this. It turns out there is some plans in the making for a Remembrance Day celebration at our school. I'm glad because it would be a shame not to do something as a shcool community on Nov. 11th
Jess
Esther and Cheryle,
So the Liturgy went very well. I am very proud of my students for their behaviour and the message they were able to get across to the school. I even had two students who said a last minute reading in front of the entire school. The whole event was awesome. The other grade 4 teacher and I have recieved many compliments about the slide show. We played the song "We are the World" with the slideshow and it helped to make everything come togetehr so well.
At the end of the assembly the vice principal handed out certificates to students who were chosen by their teachers for having lived out the virtue of compassion for the month of October. What was surprising to everyone was when an entire family of 5 or 6 siblings was chosen. The wierd thing about it was they were each chosen by their classroom teacher without any talk about it between teachers. I also picked a student from my class whose brother was chosen by his grade 2 teacher and there was one more family of two or three who were presented with the certificate for compassion. It was just really neat to see that not only are students being taught to act with compassion at school, but this MUST be happening in their homes. Jessica, we have spoken so often about your assemble, it is fun to now read about it and all the results. Saundra told me it was amazing.
Esther, I wanted to let you know that last year as well as this year our students have been challeneged to bring in $1 each to go towards buying gifts for families through World Vision. Last year I told my students I would match their donations. My parents also put forth some money towards this. One of the teachers at our school also had our goals online and parents or family could donate through their child's classroom.
I was thinking that since you are collecting pennies with your jk's it might be neat to ask them how many of them have ever found a penny. I'm sure a lot of them can relate and then as your fundraiser comes to an end you can show them just how far pennies can go to help others out. Also this reminds me of a song and we all know jk's love to sing. You know the one...it goes something like.
Love is something that if you give it away,
you give it away, you give it away,
love is something that if you give it away
you'll end up having more. It's just like a magic penny, hold it tight and you won't have any.
Lend it spend it and you'll have so many, they'll roll all over the floor...
Love is something that if you give it away,
you give it away, you give it away,
love is something that if you give it away you'll end up having more.
Anyways, these are just a few thoughts I had that I thought might be helpful for getting your students engaged in donating their pennies.
Peace,
Jessica
Thanks, Jessica for that delightful song, I had forgotten about it. The children will love singing it and it fits in so well.
We have received quuite a few pennies and loose change. I know we will have enough for 1 set of chickens and 1 set of 3 blankets. Our school has several projects on the go right now including twoonies for toys , poinsettias, and food drive so I feel I can't push too much for the pennies. I 'm giving the senior KG 10 frames so they can help with the counting for rolling the pennies. They are amazed at how many have actually come into our classroom.
I am still amazed at the siblings who were recognized for compassion. Their families must be very proud!
I'm sure your assembly affected your whole school in many ways.
This week my students will announce how close we are to reaching our goals and which class contributed the most. Actually right now it looks like the KG classes will be the winners. I think I will give them ice cream bars instead of the pizza lunch. They will be happier with ice cream.
Take care,
Esther
Hi Jessica and Ester,
I have manage.d to erase all I have written 3 times. I am going to save this now.
and see what happens
Hello Friends,
I've been thinking about the theme of our entries and projects and how we can put it altogether in one statement.
It seems to me that our projects have proven that noone is too young to make a difference. Working together we can influence others and change lives at our school and on the other side of the world.
Any ideas on how to sum it up in a few sentences ?
Being Jesus to others in my project has meant being able to help another family in a tangible way, providing them with the means to provide for their family for years to come. I also like knowing that World Vision is a christian organization so they will share the good news about God`s love with the family. Whereever Jesus went in his ministry he also shared this same good news about God's love. Even though my students are young, their compassion for those less fortunate is very real.
I think this project has shown them how they can help others in places that are far away from us. They have enjoyed comparing their homes, food, chores, etc with those of a child in Kenya. Learning that God loves people everywhere has been an important lesson for them.
See you on Tues.
Esther
Hi Esther,
Sorry, I spelled your name incorrectly about. Sorry about that.
I am back on, I need to take some time and re-read your enteries. I had written earlier about what my project is all about. I am working on Sleeping Children Around the World. THis is an initiative we are now doing in our school for the second year. We have asked our students not to purchase gifts for us (the staff), but to make a donation for Sleeping Children Around the World. As this is a Christmas Project, we are just getting into the overall project now. My job is to introduce the students to the project. I am the one teacher who sees every student in the school. I will be showing the Sleeping Children Around the World Website and a U-tube video that talks about the project. What I love about this project is that all funds raised go toward buying a sleeping kit for a person, none of the money lines the pocket of anyone else. The whole project is run by volunteers. I am so excited to be sharing this with the kids. Also, there are no stupid prizes for the kids to win if they give more money...such as Jump Rope For Heart initiatives.
I am not sure about the Tuesday deadline, perhaps we could have just a bit more time with it.Cheryle
Hi Jess and Esther,
Jess, it feels weird not to have talked to you this weekend. I hope all is well with you. Esther I am so impressed that you get things done with your KG, I taught JK last fall and was a total basket case the whole time. I loved the kids, but I barely survived the experience. Now I see them for 40 minutes an then they go somewhere else, it is so much better for me. I have spent a lot of time this year working on promoting peace, love and kindness in my music classroom. I think it is really working. I see kids working in music to be nice to their classmates, they will let other kids have their instrument choice first and celebrate when one of their classmates gets something.
Anyho, with Sleeping Children Around the World - we are hoping to raise enough money to purchase 100 beds. I believe we got 60 last year. I think having me promote it over the next couple of weeks in my class will really help. I will keep you posted.
Ester, the things you have done, comparing your students' homes to children in Kenya and learning about Jesus and where he went in his ministry is amazing.
See you Tuesday.
Cheryle
Hi Guys,
After reading through your posts I got to thinking about all the things we do around our school and the events I am directly involved in. For Remembrance Day we went downtown and my Grade 3 and 4 classes lead the town in O Canada, God Save The Queen and sang a piece called We are The Children. It was such an incredible experience. Our whole school was involved and it was so much fun. The week before I spent Friday afternoon teaching the kids God Save the Queen. It was a fabulous opportunity to teach them some of Canada's history, the ceremony behind it all and what they need to do each and every time they hear that song. Monday was a PA day, so we had a quick review on Tuesday morning and then they had to walk downtown, and when they arrived at the park soldiers were already at the cenipath guarding it. They had guns and were super still, the children were amazed. Then all of the veterans in town came and took their place. I was really nervous because I felt that we did not have a lot of time to prepare and being a musical perfectionist I really like the students to be totally ready for a public performance. Anyhow, they did fine. After I took two of my soloists over to talk to the veterans - the veterans cried. It was such a moving experience for all of us.
Now I am planning the Christmas Concert - the Grade 3 and 4 students have learned this huge work. They sing a song about Hands Changing the World, and then they get into a part where they will talk about meeting each person in the world, that leads to a discussion about the Musical Language of the World - that being music. They will then talk about how Silent Night stopped the war for 4 days during the First World War. British and German Soldiers crossed the battle field, hugged, ate together and played soccer. After they tell that story then they will sing Silent Night and then finish with the song they sang at Remembrance Day - We are THe Children and it basically tells how they can change the world.
The bedkit money has not come in yet - I think the bulk of it will come in the last week before the holidays.
Anyhow, the two of you amaze me with all that you have done.
Have a terrific day
Hello Cheryle,
I think your Grade 3and 4 music presentation will be amazing. I haven't thought of that incident in WW 1 for a long time.
I know it will have an effect on your audience, I always get emotional just thinking about it. I believe the story demonstrates again how powerful the message of the birth of the Saviour is to people everywhere. I think the song Silent NIght was first written in German. What a great way to introduce it to parents and students.
I love the way you have made the children aware of their role in bringing a message to the world.
Your Remembrance Day reflections again show the impact you are making on the lives of your students.
You have a wonderful ministry!
See you on Tues.
Esther
Hi Esther and Jessica
So, we finally have Sleeping Children Around the World started. A letter was sent home to parents asking that if their children wanted to give a gift to the staff that we would really love a card and a small donation to SCAW. Today I started watching a video that promotes SCAW and began a discussion about the organization. I love this organization in that none of the money goes to help run the company, it all goes to the bedkites. My students were so happy to be able to discuss it, some talked about receiving a card from SCAW last year because they had donated 2 whole bedkits others talked about how they had some money they could donate. We also talked about homeless people, mental disabilities and just the fact that some people do not have a place to live. My grade 5 students amazed me because of their compassion and their desire to help in whatever way possible. I know I am going to love the next week, the door for discussion will remain open and I know they will have a lot more questions.
See you tomorrow.
Cheryle
SCAW sounds like an excellent organization to be getting your students involved in. It is fantastic to hear that they are so enthused and that they are sharing stories about cards they received last year for their donations. I really like the idea that your school sent home a letter to the parents asking for a donation for SCAW as opposed to gifts for your staff. Our school has decided not to donate to World Vision this year as we have too many needy families in our own school community. The school has sent home several letters updating families on items that the families are in need of. I am happy to announce that my students and their families are responding very well to this. I can tell we are doing our part for our community when, each day I see the looks on the two grade 8's faces as I pile up their arms with more food and toys that my students have brought in as they come to collect our donations. This form of giving has allowed me to revisit the virtue of justice and has led nicely into the teaching of this months virtue of hope. As for the letters that have been going home with updates of the families wish lists, I am going to make the suggestion that our school does what Cheryle's school has done by suggesting that those who wanted to give a gift to their teacher could make donations to our food, clothing and toy drive instead.
Peace,
Jessica
Hi Jessica and Esther,
Today was another exciting day promoting Bed Kits, I only had one class that was different from yesterday and that was the grade 4 students. They were so worried that we didn't want any gifts and wondered if we even liked them. I explained that we love gifts, homemade gifts are the best and that yes we like to get gifts, but because we have so much already we thought it would be nice if children around the world could benefit from a gift more than we could. I then went on to explain how I love homemade gifts, pictures especially and told them I still had a picture on my refrigerator from Siobhann, a girl in that class. She made it for me last June - she was so excited that I still had it. Tomorrow I have all new kids coming in for music, so I can promote it again. I think I will have my grade 5 students make up flyers to promote the project as well.
Talk soon.
Cheryle
Group B
Please keep in mind that only one person can edit this page at a time.
It is recommended that each of you choose a colour of font and use the same one throughout.
As you work on your social action project (committed to 12 hours of dedicated time to giving service to others) plus responding in a Wiki format with your group of three, you will answer the following question: In light of your understanding of who do you say that I am, what does it mean to be Christ to others through your project? You will share your thoughts and observations and actions of setting up to kinds of things you did to what you observed or saw to the final pieces of your project. At the end of your project (Dec. 2 or what you have completed thus far), your group will come up with a group response to Who do you say that I am based on your social action journey.
Let's start answering this question tonight.
What does it mean to you, "Who do you say that I am?"
Hello Jessica and Cheryl,
I teach KG so we have been learning how to look after the planet by recycling. They are excited about it and try to be very careful about which bin to use. They were also impressed about the amount of food that came in for the Thanksgiving food Drive. Being able to help other people in this way is such a big concept to them.
I have an idea for a project through World Vision of raising money for a school in another country. I have to get started
on it if I am to be finished by Christmas. Esther
Hi Esther
I really think that you must have an incredible gift for teaching JK. I tried it for a term last year and I was not happy. You have to be so patient, and organized. I am so impressed that you discuss the issues of Food shortages, and World Vision with them. If I remember my teaching in JK last year around Thanksgiving, I was just in a survival mode. Cheryle
Esther and Cheryle,
Now I hope I have this figured out and that I am posting to the right area.
Esther it sounds like you have your KG's engaged in the recycling program and I'm sure they'll be just as excited about helping out another family through World Vision. Last year each class in our school raised money toward purchasing gifts through World Vision. My class bought rabbits and some other items for a family. My students loved this project and I am going to incorporate it into my religion program again this year.
Anyways, I have signed my class up to run a virtue assembly/liturgy for the school on November 3rd. The virtue for November is JUSTICE. At first I was finding it difficult to come up with an idea for the assembly/liturgy and an idea on how to teach my students exactly what justice is. Furthermore, I found out that this will be our schools only liturgy for November so I figured my class is also responsible for touching on Remembrance Day. After utilizing our school’s library resources I have come across a short Liturgy that focuses on the virtue of justice and found a book to read to my students about this virtue. After reading the book and explaining that we are responsible for teaching the entire school about justice my student’s mind were racing with ideas. We ended up having several discussions on how we could teach this virtue in an engaging way. So far we have far too many ideas which will eventually lead to our class encouraging all of the other classes to write letters to our military troops around Remembrance Day. My students are so excited about this project and I am excited to update the two of you along the way. Good luck with your projects!
Jess
Hello Jessica,
It sounds like you have really been doing some amazing things with your class. They are really excited about Justice and how they can tell the school. It seems so appropriate to center their liturgy around Remembrance Day. What grade do you teach?
I was encouraged to hear about your project with World Vision. We are going to begin talking about it this week. I was thinking about having them make posters that we could place outside our door so the other grades could help and maybe we could make an announcement to the rest of the school.
I look forward to hearing more about your assembly/liturgy.
Esther
Esther and Cheryle,
I guess I forgot to tell you that I teach grade 4. So far in preparing for our Liturgy my students have heard the story Somewhere Today... and have made there own Somewhere Today posters to hang in the gym for our litugy. For example: Somewhere today someone is helping sommeone who is sick. Or Somewhere today someone is taking care of the environment. we may end up taking pictures of these and using them in a slideshow. We had wanted to take real photographs of our students doing good deeds and put them in a slideshow, but we seem to be running out of time. I also forgot to mention that the other grade 4 class is involved in creating this liturgy with my grade four class. We have yet to get together and time is quickly running out. So, I will update you later.
Jess
Hello Esther and Cheryle,
This is my third time posting and I think I've finally figured it out. In case you have not noticed my other posts are under the discussion heading. In any case, plans for the virtue liturgy are moving quite slowly as I have been sick the past few days and the other grade 4 teacher and I have had trouble finding the time to work together on this project. She did however, come up with the idea to make our Somewhere Today posters into plastercine posters. Then we will take photos of them and make a slideshow to end off our virtue assembly. I was not in class at the end of the day today when my students began working on making their pictures into plastercine art, but I'm sure they were enthused as they seem to really love art projects. After hearing Greg Rogers speak a few weeks ago I think that we will use the song Hands by Jewel to play along with our slideshow. Also, our plans for writing to the troops have kind of fallen through as the company that we got the postcards from last year stopped producing the postcards and so we only have enough for the grade 4's. Anyways I will definitely have my grade fours send postcards, but I'm not sure how we'll go about it for the rest of the school. I'd like to think we could ask other grades to write letters, but these days people seem to only want to be part of convenient projects and the postcards make such a project much more convenient. Hopefully our virtue assembly will get the message of justice across to the rest of the school and we will be able to let our troops know that we have not forgotten about them and the reasons they are where they are.
Jessica
Hi ladies,
I just figured out how to move my other two posts to this page so that you do not have to look under the discussion heading. I placed them in the sequence in which they were originally sent.
Jessica
Hello Again!
Friday was such a busy day with all the Halloween festivities and trying to get our liturgy organized for Monday. As we (the other grade 4 teacher and myself,) rushed around trying to prepare this liturgy for Monday we began to get very frustrated. We want our students to be part of the whole preparation, but with all the interruptions during the last few weeks (Dance-A-Thon, cross country meets etc.) it has been hard to get our two classes together to work on this project. Late Friday morning we asked if it was possible to switch the liturgy to a later date and lucky for us we were able to switch it to this Wednesday. Now I feel much better in preparing my students who will be saying the readings. We hadn't picked readers until Friday and were going to send them home to practice. Now I will have time over the next few days to go over the readings with them to ensure they are comfortable.
Also, the choir was able to practice on Friday and any classes who were interested joined the choir to practice the songs. Both grade four classes attended this practice and will join in the next practices on Monday and Wednesday. The students are excited that they helped to choose the songs that they thought fit best with the virtue of justice. Several students have been asked to write prayers of the faithful. We will work with them on Monday to do this. I can't wait to see how the finished project will play out.
Jess
Hello Jess,
Your virtue liturgy is coming along really well. You have been able to involve several other classes and the choir members. It's aways so exciting when things start to come together. Would it be possible for you to send me a picture of the plasticine art?
I have involved the other KG teachers with the World vision project and I have invited the rest of the school to join in the penny drive. We decided to get the chickens and rooster for as many families as possible.
We will be collecting money until the 26th then it will be sent in.
I started to read stories about children in other countries so their awareness of the needs of others will be heightened.
It is amazing to hear them talk about what they already know about other countries. They are very knowledgeable for 5years old!!
Esther
Hi Esther,I am amazed by what you are doing. How cool to think your students are going to be buying chickens and roosters for people. It seems so simple here, but we forget how needy other countries are. Cheryle
Esther and Cheryle,
Its great to hear that your whole school is involved in the World Vision project. Our whole school was involved last year with the World Vision project and it was quite successful.
I will send some pictures of the plastercine art when I get a chance. We made a slideshow out of them so I will attempt to send it. I am really happy with how it all turned out. I cancelld our gym class this morning in order to get a practice in with the other grade four class for our Liturgy. You should have heard the moans and groans from a few of the boys when they heard we would miss gym. What surprised me is when one of the girls spoke up and said something to the effect that sometimes we need to make sacrifices like Jesus did and that it wasn't going to kill them to miss a gym class.
So our practice went well, the readers did very well and those who I least expected did the best. they were really excited. We even had the few students from our class who are in choir lead us in practicing they songs. Even without the music and music teacher they sounded beautiful. Well, 20 minute countdown before the Liturgy begins. I had better get going. I will let you know how it went a little later.
Oh, since we didn't really work in to much regarding Remembrance Day into our Liturgy I sent out some ideas to my colleagues about writing e-letters to the troops. Hopefully some of the classes will take advantage of this. It turns out there is some plans in the making for a Remembrance Day celebration at our school. I'm glad because it would be a shame not to do something as a shcool community on Nov. 11th
Jess
Esther and Cheryle,
So the Liturgy went very well. I am very proud of my students for their behaviour and the message they were able to get across to the school. I even had two students who said a last minute reading in front of the entire school. The whole event was awesome. The other grade 4 teacher and I have recieved many compliments about the slide show. We played the song "We are the World" with the slideshow and it helped to make everything come togetehr so well.
At the end of the assembly the vice principal handed out certificates to students who were chosen by their teachers for having lived out the virtue of compassion for the month of October. What was surprising to everyone was when an entire family of 5 or 6 siblings was chosen. The wierd thing about it was they were each chosen by their classroom teacher without any talk about it between teachers. I also picked a student from my class whose brother was chosen by his grade 2 teacher and there was one more family of two or three who were presented with the certificate for compassion. It was just really neat to see that not only are students being taught to act with compassion at school, but this MUST be happening in their homes.
Jessica, we have spoken so often about your assemble, it is fun to now read about it and all the results. Saundra told me it was amazing.
Esther, I wanted to let you know that last year as well as this year our students have been challeneged to bring in $1 each to go towards buying gifts for families through World Vision. Last year I told my students I would match their donations. My parents also put forth some money towards this. One of the teachers at our school also had our goals online and parents or family could donate through their child's classroom.
I was thinking that since you are collecting pennies with your jk's it might be neat to ask them how many of them have ever found a penny. I'm sure a lot of them can relate and then as your fundraiser comes to an end you can show them just how far pennies can go to help others out. Also this reminds me of a song and we all know jk's love to sing. You know the one...it goes something like.
Love is something that if you give it away,
you give it away, you give it away,
love is something that if you give it away
you'll end up having more.
It's just like a magic penny, hold it tight and you won't have any.
Lend it spend it and you'll have so many, they'll roll all over the floor...
Love is something that if you give it away,
you give it away, you give it away,
love is something that if you give it away you'll end up having more.
Anyways, these are just a few thoughts I had that I thought might be helpful for getting your students engaged in donating their pennies.
Peace,
Jessica
Thanks, Jessica for that delightful song, I had forgotten about it. The children will love singing it and it fits in so well.
We have received quuite a few pennies and loose change. I know we will have enough for 1 set of chickens and 1 set of 3 blankets. Our school has several projects on the go right now including twoonies for toys , poinsettias, and food drive so I feel I can't push too much for the pennies. I 'm giving the senior KG 10 frames so they can help with the counting for rolling the pennies. They are amazed at how many have actually come into our classroom.
I am still amazed at the siblings who were recognized for compassion. Their families must be very proud!
I'm sure your assembly affected your whole school in many ways.
This week my students will announce how close we are to reaching our goals and which class contributed the most. Actually right now it looks like the KG classes will be the winners. I think I will give them ice cream bars instead of the pizza lunch. They will be happier with ice cream.
Take care,
Esther
Hi Jessica and Ester,
I have manage.d to erase all I have written 3 times. I am going to save this now.
and see what happens
Hello Friends,
I've been thinking about the theme of our entries and projects and how we can put it altogether in one statement.
It seems to me that our projects have proven that noone is too young to make a difference. Working together we can influence others and change lives at our school and on the other side of the world.
Any ideas on how to sum it up in a few sentences ?
Being Jesus to others in my project has meant being able to help another family in a tangible way, providing them with the means to provide for their family for years to come. I also like knowing that World Vision is a christian organization so they will share the good news about God`s love with the family. Whereever Jesus went in his ministry he also shared this same good news about God's love. Even though my students are young, their compassion for those less fortunate is very real.
I think this project has shown them how they can help others in places that are far away from us. They have enjoyed comparing their homes, food, chores, etc with those of a child in Kenya. Learning that God loves people everywhere has been an important lesson for them.
See you on Tues.
Esther
Hi Esther,
Sorry, I spelled your name incorrectly about. Sorry about that.
I am back on, I need to take some time and re-read your enteries. I had written earlier about what my project is all about. I am working on Sleeping Children Around the World. THis is an initiative we are now doing in our school for the second year. We have asked our students not to purchase gifts for us (the staff), but to make a donation for Sleeping Children Around the World. As this is a Christmas Project, we are just getting into the overall project now. My job is to introduce the students to the project. I am the one teacher who sees every student in the school. I will be showing the Sleeping Children Around the World Website and a U-tube video that talks about the project. What I love about this project is that all funds raised go toward buying a sleeping kit for a person, none of the money lines the pocket of anyone else. The whole project is run by volunteers. I am so excited to be sharing this with the kids. Also, there are no stupid prizes for the kids to win if they give more money...such as Jump Rope For Heart initiatives.
I am not sure about the Tuesday deadline, perhaps we could have just a bit more time with it.Cheryle
Hi Jess and Esther,
Jess, it feels weird not to have talked to you this weekend. I hope all is well with you. Esther I am so impressed that you get things done with your KG, I taught JK last fall and was a total basket case the whole time. I loved the kids, but I barely survived the experience. Now I see them for 40 minutes an then they go somewhere else, it is so much better for me. I have spent a lot of time this year working on promoting peace, love and kindness in my music classroom. I think it is really working. I see kids working in music to be nice to their classmates, they will let other kids have their instrument choice first and celebrate when one of their classmates gets something.
Anyho, with Sleeping Children Around the World - we are hoping to raise enough money to purchase 100 beds. I believe we got 60 last year. I think having me promote it over the next couple of weeks in my class will really help. I will keep you posted.
Ester, the things you have done, comparing your students' homes to children in Kenya and learning about Jesus and where he went in his ministry is amazing.
See you Tuesday.
Cheryle
Hi Guys,
After reading through your posts I got to thinking about all the things we do around our school and the events I am directly involved in. For Remembrance Day we went downtown and my Grade 3 and 4 classes lead the town in O Canada, God Save The Queen and sang a piece called We are The Children. It was such an incredible experience. Our whole school was involved and it was so much fun. The week before I spent Friday afternoon teaching the kids God Save the Queen. It was a fabulous opportunity to teach them some of Canada's history, the ceremony behind it all and what they need to do each and every time they hear that song. Monday was a PA day, so we had a quick review on Tuesday morning and then they had to walk downtown, and when they arrived at the park soldiers were already at the cenipath guarding it. They had guns and were super still, the children were amazed. Then all of the veterans in town came and took their place. I was really nervous because I felt that we did not have a lot of time to prepare and being a musical perfectionist I really like the students to be totally ready for a public performance. Anyhow, they did fine. After I took two of my soloists over to talk to the veterans - the veterans cried. It was such a moving experience for all of us.
Now I am planning the Christmas Concert - the Grade 3 and 4 students have learned this huge work. They sing a song about Hands Changing the World, and then they get into a part where they will talk about meeting each person in the world, that leads to a discussion about the Musical Language of the World - that being music. They will then talk about how Silent Night stopped the war for 4 days during the First World War. British and German Soldiers crossed the battle field, hugged, ate together and played soccer. After they tell that story then they will sing Silent Night and then finish with the song they sang at Remembrance Day - We are THe Children and it basically tells how they can change the world.
The bedkit money has not come in yet - I think the bulk of it will come in the last week before the holidays.
Anyhow, the two of you amaze me with all that you have done.
Have a terrific day
Hello Cheryle,
I think your Grade 3and 4 music presentation will be amazing. I haven't thought of that incident in WW 1 for a long time.
I know it will have an effect on your audience, I always get emotional just thinking about it. I believe the story demonstrates again how powerful the message of the birth of the Saviour is to people everywhere. I think the song Silent NIght was first written in German. What a great way to introduce it to parents and students.
I love the way you have made the children aware of their role in bringing a message to the world.
Your Remembrance Day reflections again show the impact you are making on the lives of your students.
You have a wonderful ministry!
See you on Tues.
Esther
Hi Esther and Jessica
So, we finally have Sleeping Children Around the World started. A letter was sent home to parents asking that if their children wanted to give a gift to the staff that we would really love a card and a small donation to SCAW. Today I started watching a video that promotes SCAW and began a discussion about the organization. I love this organization in that none of the money goes to help run the company, it all goes to the bedkites. My students were so happy to be able to discuss it, some talked about receiving a card from SCAW last year because they had donated 2 whole bedkits others talked about how they had some money they could donate. We also talked about homeless people, mental disabilities and just the fact that some people do not have a place to live. My grade 5 students amazed me because of their compassion and their desire to help in whatever way possible. I know I am going to love the next week, the door for discussion will remain open and I know they will have a lot more questions.
See you tomorrow.
Cheryle
SCAW sounds like an excellent organization to be getting your students involved in. It is fantastic to hear that they are so enthused and that they are sharing stories about cards they received last year for their donations. I really like the idea that your school sent home a letter to the parents asking for a donation for SCAW as opposed to gifts for your staff. Our school has decided not to donate to World Vision this year as we have too many needy families in our own school community. The school has sent home several letters updating families on items that the families are in need of. I am happy to announce that my students and their families are responding very well to this. I can tell we are doing our part for our community when, each day I see the looks on the two grade 8's faces as I pile up their arms with more food and toys that my students have brought in as they come to collect our donations. This form of giving has allowed me to revisit the virtue of justice and has led nicely into the teaching of this months virtue of hope. As for the letters that have been going home with updates of the families wish lists, I am going to make the suggestion that our school does what Cheryle's school has done by suggesting that those who wanted to give a gift to their teacher could make donations to our food, clothing and toy drive instead.
Peace,
Jessica
Hi Jessica and Esther,
Today was another exciting day promoting Bed Kits, I only had one class that was different from yesterday and that was the grade 4 students. They were so worried that we didn't want any gifts and wondered if we even liked them. I explained that we love gifts, homemade gifts are the best and that yes we like to get gifts, but because we have so much already we thought it would be nice if children around the world could benefit from a gift more than we could. I then went on to explain how I love homemade gifts, pictures especially and told them I still had a picture on my refrigerator from Siobhann, a girl in that class. She made it for me last June - she was so excited that I still had it. Tomorrow I have all new kids coming in for music, so I can promote it again. I think I will have my grade 5 students make up flyers to promote the project as well.
Talk soon.
Cheryle